There has been a lot of discussion about links recently. I think if we all take some simple steps we can really help each other out. It is a common practice on Active Rain to link other people in our blogs, it is good blogging etiquette. If you are writing about something that was inspired by another AR member it is good blogging practice to link back to the person or to their original blog. Makes sense, right?
I am proposing that we just take this simple practice on small step further. I was reading FRANK LL0SA, Virginia Real Estate's blog about Project Link for Charity! . Frank is donating money to charity for every link he receives. You can read more about that on Frank's blog. I think it is a great idea.
What I am proposing is LINK LOVE for the sake of love or etiquette. Whenever you link someone in your blog why not take an extra two seconds and link their website. I just did this above when I mentioned Frank. Virginia Real Estate goes directly back to his website. *look for more link love in the rest of the blog.
If you go to the AR search feature and type in your name you will probably see the many people have referenced you in their blogs. Just think, if every person that ever mentioned you gave a link to your website you would be in Google heaven. Searching your name is a great thing to do anyway. Sometimes people write a great blog about you and for one reason or another you never find it. Or conversely maybe you've stepped on someone's toes and they are blowing up the net with hate blogs about you. Either way, it is nice to know. (The phrase "blowing up" is a colloquialism I learned from my pal Marci Toliver,* Fresh Eye Designs.)
OK so how do you put this into practice. First you should always use the AR search feature before blogging. Read more about that here. Now that you know what you are going to write about and you have decided who to link in your blog you are all set. Not sure how to use the link feature on AR, you can check out Kristal Kraft,* Denver Real Estate's tutorial on linking How to Create a Link. There are all sorts of handy tutorials on the very bottom of KK's profile. You should check them all out.
Now the last thing you need to remember is that blogs containing Links need to be public in order for the links to count. I think that is right - SEO experts can chime in on that in the comments. One other note about comments. Links left in comments do not count for SEO or anything else for that matter, so there is no point in spamming people with your link in comments. It is also poor blogging etiquette.
I'd like to know what you all think of the Link Love for Love program. If you would like to give me some Link Love can't promise to send you any money but I think a cookie would be in order! Feedback on this idea is strongly encouraged.
Great post Maureen...and excellent use of anchor text for the three folks you wrote about. We could all do better if we linked the way that you do.
And you are right- the blogs need to be public.
Nice Post, was trying to organize a little blog team, make some posts about each other and such. Anyway it has started. One thing that is not all together clear and you may know better than I, but cramming a blog with like 10 or 15 links seems over the top, and as far as how other systems work, the more links you put into a blog the less link love each of them have, likely that is the case with AR as well. You may know that better than I.
Jim
Karen - Thanks for confirming that.
Brian - Great points. Thanks for your thoughtful comment.
James - I am no expert. I have no idea if too many links will not be weighed as heavy. Is does kind of make sense, but I've stopped trying to make sense of SEO. I just do what the experts tell me to.
If you read up on the history of link exchanges in the Realtor arena, you'll find that the search engines aren't real friendly to Realtors linking to Realtors. Google and Yahoo are certainly smart enough to figure this stuff out. Ask anyone who had Realtor link exchanges with their Advanced Access websites within the last two years. They got good results for a short while, and then got totally BANNED from the search engines when first Yahoo and then Google got totally PO'd about this practice.
This type of post is certainly a good way of providing press for your Realtor pals though. It's informative and the links are part of a story line instead of just listed for no reason. If you truly want to link exchange with other Realtors, make sure it's done in a post like this one instead of like the other spammy posts I've seen that are nothing but a blatant link exchange with no other value to the consumer.
What a great idea Maureen! I've said it before that I'm not real "tech saavy" but am learning the importance of it for business purposes. I'm more about meeting in person, getting to know someone the old fashioned way but it this high tech society one must stay on top of ways in order to promote our business locally, nationally and globally (and the web is really the only easy way possible).
This is a wonderful opportunity for us to "connect" with other members we have learned from, enjoy "talking" to and some are even forming friendships. I love it and thank you for thinking outside the box here and getting the ball rolling.
I must say...You are too gracious to your readers!!! You are always so nice to your guest.
I must compliment you on your ability to connect with people.
Bob, next time hyperlink it and tag it properly.
I'm not always nice.
Sounds like good advice, Maureen Henry. Care to take it a step further and place reciprocal links on each others websites. I'm looking for out of state contacts and I think we all should be.
klausn@mail.com
Bob - You are a very mean man. Funny, but with a twisted mean streak.
Klaus - I getting links on people's websites is hard work, but the experts say good links = good SEO.
Hi Maureen,
Great post! You always have such informative posts, you go girl!
Maureen - Thanks for sharing!! And you're right, take the extra minute to embed the actual web site will help tremendously.
Thanks again.
Kathy
Maureen ~ What a nice lady you are, giving out both links and chocolate chip cookies! Yummy good!
Thank you!
kk
Moe, great post with excellent advice. How come links within a comment don't "count"?
Hey Guys - Thanks for all the great comments.
Sue - That is just about the coolest picture!!!!
This is hard to explain because I really don't know much about how sites are set up and I don't remember where I read it, but I think it was on the AR official Blog, they have set up AR so that the Blogs are public and will be crawled by the search engines. The comments are only on the AR network and are not able to be crawled by search engines. I think they did this so people would not spam comments. It does make sense.
If there is anyone out there that can explain that better or find the blog where it was explained please share it here. Thanks!
I have enjoyed reading your blogs and have found them very informative.
Thank you,
Cyndy Sujarit
Prudential Commercial Real Estate
Great advise.....here is to becoming my favorite blogger http://www.rocklandhomestaging.com/aboutus.htm
bob
Las Vegas Real Estate
Hey Nima - I hope everything is OK with you. I think you work too hard.
It is better to link to your website. Active Rain has plenty of Google Juice on its own. You figure that with over 20,000 members if even 5% link back to them that is 1000 links. Since AR gives out bonus points for the link I think the percentage is much higher. AR is the king of Link Love.
I'd be concerned about incurring a penalty for what is in effect link buying:
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/text-links-and-pagerank/
Hey thanks for the love! Let's do some good for charity in the meantime!
Frank
Maureen, not a bad idea, thanks for the heads up :) keep teh good blog :)
I'd love to hear what some of the real SEO experts have to say about this. Anyone???
Maureen,
This is a really great idea that you have. I have been generous with links to AR blogs in the past - yet for some reason it never occurred to me to link to their actual website.
I have another little tip about outbound links - When I am writing and come across a term that I think can benefit with either a clearer explanation, I will link to Wikipedia. To take this a step further, I will also Google terms and link to them - this is especially helpful when providing a resource.
As an example, I published an article yesterday about mistakes homeowners make when selling a home. In order to back up my claims on the price of rehab materials, I did a Google search and found an appropriate website. Of course at the end of the article I had to put in a disclaimer that this was just research and not an endorsement of any product, company or website.
Now Have a Blessed Day,
John Occhi, Hemet REALTOR
Maureen...
Great post. I was wondering if someone would eventually put up something like this.
Link love is really important. All you need is Love. La La La La :)
TLW...ROAR!
Linking brings it all together. You simply need to make sure that the links are relevant and informative.
Scott
I'm feeling lots of love in here <3
Links are a great way to show support of other members of the community and give to those around you!
Thanks for the info, Maureen! I'll try! I need to get myself a "techie" to do all this stuff for me----I like to design, decorate and stage!
Julia
Maureen, this is a FANTASTIC idea and I hope to see it catch on as common practice. I wrote a blog a while back about referencing each other on our websites also and if we all take the time to help out our AR buddies in other markets, we could really drive each others' rankings up. Thanks for the suggestions and the tutorial for those who needed it. I hope this TAKES OFF!
In fact, it might even be a good idea for us to go back and edit some of our recent posts where we've referenced others' blogs and add their websites to get this going strong!
Maureen, fabulous and informative post with lots of good information and comments. I've learned the link love and have used it for specific blogs in AR.....never thought to link it to the website. Bookmarked and rated a 5!! Thanks for the post.
Patricia - You're doing great. Everything I know I learned right here. We are lucky to have some of the most generous teachers!
Terri - Go forth and link love.
Thanks for the info. I have yet to do this...shame on me! :(
Maureen, great info, you just might become my idol too. Thanks Karen Dembsky for mentioning it. Lots of wisdom here for the taking, and thanks to the generosity of all for giving.